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Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Church needs pastors that are godlier. However, the Church
needs pastors who are more learned as well. Better still, the Church needs
ministers whose education and piety grow in harmony to the end of their lives.
The ministers of the past whom we often admire most are those men who were most
diligent and prayerful in their studies.[1]
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the southern Presbyterian R. L.
Dabney illustrated the need for a thoroughly educated ministry with a useful
analogy. A woodsman who is naturally strong in body may chop twice as much wood
in a day as another man, even though he has a dull axe. Yet if he desires to
maximize his effectiveness, then he will take time that he otherwise would have
used to chop more wood in order to sharpen his axe. At the expense of an hour of
his time, he will be twice as productive and useful in his labors.[2]
In a similar manner, ministers of the gospel should pursue warm-hearted personal
piety through intense study. For many, continuing education will be a good means
to secure this end.

Many churches do not understand why
their ministers should continue their education, and ministers can sometimes
neglect their churches at the expense of further education. Both of these
positions reflect a defective view of ministerial education. This article
demonstrates the need for life-long ministerial education, whether formal or
informal. This assertion requires us to consider what is in view, why ministers
should grow in their theological education, how they should do so, and how and
why congregations should support them in these endeavors.

What Is In View?

Asserting that ministers should pursue continuing education implies a
preliminary question: what kind of education is here in view? Even though not
every ministry must follow the same path, this article is tailored toward
driving men and churches to a higher view of formal ministerial education beyond
the Master of Divinity level. However, the manner in which men and their
congregations view continuing education often indicates how they regard the
minister’s study in general.[3]
Study and learning are not the only things that must occupy a minister, but
without the continual, prayerful, and devout study of Scripture and the theology
of the Church, his flock will be subjected to ravenous wolves more easily, his
soul will be emaciated, and his entire ministry will suffer. The greatest
tragedy is that men who do not see the need for continuing education following
their divinity studies rarely see that their ministries have suffered already by
virtue of their attitude. A few observations are necessary in order to define
the parameters of this discussion.

Three observations

First, post graduate degree programs beyond the Master of Divinity level are in view immediately (though not exclusively). Such programs could include a Masters in Theology (ThM), a doctorate of ministry (DMin), a doctorate of theology (ThD), DPhil, or PhD program. Each program differs in
emphasis. It is important to understand the differences between them in order to
set personal goals. A ThM is ordinarily a research degree that may or may not
include course work and which may focus on a wide range of subjects. A DMin is a
ministerial degree that requires several courses as well as a ministry oriented
research project. ThDs, DPhil’s, and PhDs are intensive research degrees that
are more scholarly in nature. The American model for these degrees includes
about two years of course work, a thesis, language requirements, and
comprehensive exams in the chosen subject. The European model often does not
require course work, specified language requirements, or comprehensive exams.
Instead, it focuses attention on a more intense research project. A ThD is
usually offered at a theological seminary, whereas a PhD or DPhil can be pursued
with a seminary or a university.

When I graduated from seminary, I was not aware of these
distinctions. Knowing them helps determine what kind of further education you
might consider. For instance, a ThM is less intense than a PhD. It is a good end
in itself as well as a profitable stepping stone to the great rigors of a
doctoral program. A DMin expands upon areas of practical theology that were
introduced in an MDiv course. A ThD, PhD, or DPhil aims to develop expertise in
a specific area with a precise question or thesis in view. Even these latter
programs can vary dramatically depending upon where you pursue the degree. Some
programs fulfill the popular stereotype of providing expertise in one narrow
topic without gaining broader knowledge of the time period or subject in
general. Others require comprehensive knowledge in a general area of study that
is mediated through your particular subject. For example, a student doing
research on John Owen may find one of two results depending upon where he
studies. He may become an expert in what Owen has said with limited additional
knowledge about Puritanism or Reformed orthodoxy. Or he may become an expert in
why Owen said what he said, what its consequences are, and gain proficiency in
the field of Puritanism and Reformed orthodoxy in general. In my opinion, the
latter is much more difficult, yet far more useful for ministry in the long run.
It is important to know your options and to become familiar with various schools
and the character of the programs that they offer. In addition, find out who
your supervisors would be and study under men that you believe will help you
attain your ministerial goals.

Second, several seminaries offer certificate programs in various areas of study.
This approach provides a form of external prodding that will provoke you to
study more broadly than you would in your week to week pulpit ministry alone. I
often describe two levels of sermon preparation.[4]
The first is that which ministers do week to week in studying commentaries and
related materials in order preach their sermons each Lord’s Day. The other level
is to study theology and history on a larger scale in order to accumulate useful
material and to shape who we are as men. The latter is just as valuable as the
former, but few pursue it adequately while they are caught up in the rigorous
week to week labors of the ministry. We should have long term as well as short
term goals for our ministry and preaching. So, for instance, a certificate in
Systematic Theology will prompt you to become more familiar with the broader
system of doctrine and practice in the Bible that will inform every aspect of
your ministerial life. You will read your commentaries more profitably, craft
your sermons in a fuller manner, and gain much material for prayerful
application of the Scriptures.

Third, every minister must engage in self-education. In many respects, this
statement is the foundation of everything that I will say below. As mentioned
above, most of the great theologians in the history of the church spend most of
their lives in the pastorate and wrote most of their works in that context.
Today we have largely lost the idea of the pastor-scholar who serves the church
with his learning. Ministers should be learned men and ministers should produce
most of our theological literature. Study, ministry, preaching, teaching,
writing, and prayer should all build upon each other in a pastor’s life.[5]
Continuing education will likely help you aim for the kind of pastoral
excellence that characterized our Reformed forefathers. Pursuing higher
education while serving in the pastorate is a sink or swim endeavor. It forces
you to manage your time well, to learn the limits of what you can and cannot do,
and to expand your gifts and graces. Ministerial education follows the rule of
the parable of the talents: the more faithful you are with what you have and the
more you gradually push yourself to accomplish more, the more the Lord enables
you to do. For most of us, this kind of study teaches us how to be more
self-disciplined and enables us to be more effective in our self-education.

Why Ministers Should
Continue their Education

An educated ministry is biblical. Most of the
tasks of the ministry cannot be accomplished without sound knowledge and the
ability to make clear distinctions. One friend of mine describes the definition
of maturity as the ability to make finer and finer distinctions. This is
particularly true with regard to identifying false doctrine. Error rarely comes
into the church by false teachers coming in with neon signs on their foreheads
that say, “I deny the divinity of Christ, etc.” Peter says that such men
“secretly bring in destructive heresies” (2 Pet. 2:1). Heresies creep in
secretly because they creep in subtly, often employing the same language as
sound orthodox theology.[6]
Moreover, Paul charged Timothy to make his progress in the ministry evident to
all (1 Tim. 4:15). This included a charge to give attention to doctrine (v. 13,
16). Even late in his ministry Paul was careful to ask Timothy to bring scrolls
and parchments to aid his studies (2 Tim. 4:13). If even the divinely inspired
apostle progressed in his studies to his dying day, then we ought to imitate him
by aspiring to promote and to become a learned ministry. As a friend wrote,
“Christ is the Word. The mission of the church is the verbal proclamation of the
gospel. The essence of our effectiveness is to communicate the deposit of faith,
to interpret rightly both the smallest detail and to explain the macroscopic
contours of the great work of redemption. These things deserve, and demand,
intentional cultivation, bathed in earnest prayer.”[7]

Ministers need practice in learning how to wed
knowledge and piety. I have often heard other ministers ask why ministerial
examinations focus so much upon doctrine when being “apt to teach” is merely one
qualification among many for the eldership (1 Tim. 2:24). The answer in part is
that it is virtually impossible to examine a man’s personal piety apart from his
views of theology. The doctrine that we preach is the doctrine that is according
to godliness (1 Tim. 6:13). In preaching, ministers must confess with their
mouths what they believe in their hearts (Rom. 10:9). We believe and therefore
we speak (2 Cor. 4:13). I have also heard church members argue that when we
emphasize doctrine, then we lose the warmth of Christian living and experience.
While this can occur, this ought not to be the case. This kind of thinking is
foreign to the Bible. In the book of Proverbs, wisdom and understanding are
connected to walking in the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7). The fear of the Lord
is a biblical phrase. It describes reverent godly living that is produced
through faith in Christ by the powerful work of the Spirit in us, and that is
rooted in the truths of Scripture.[8]
There is no true knowledge without piety and there is no true piety without
knowledge of sound doctrine. In an ideal world, our experimental knowledge of
the truth would always grow in step with our theoretical knowledge of the truth.[9]
The fact that it does not always do so should not lead us to place the blame
upon learning and doctrine. Instead we should place the blame upon ourselves.
Ministers must cultivate the skill of learning how to wed their growth in
knowledge to their growth in piety so that they can serve as examples to the
flock. For this reason, both Paul and Peter connected growing in the knowledge
of God’s will and of the Lord Jesus Christ with wisdom, spiritual understanding,
and being fruitful in every good work (Col. 1:9-10; 2 Pet. 3:18). This is a
powerful motive for ministers to increase in their learning through education.

Education
while in the pastorate promotes self-discipline and time management. I have
often told candidates for the ministry that the pastorate can be either the
laziest calling in the world or the hardest, depending upon what we do with it.
Even under denominational structures that provide the highest levels of
ministerial accountability, the fact remains that in the day to day work of the
pastorate, we must be largely self-disciplined. Most of the time, no one is
looking over our shoulders to ensure that we are good stewards with our time.
The only one who takes note of our time management is the Lord. Most men do not
learn to use their time well until they are forced to plan ahead and to keep
track of what they are doing each day. Pursuing a higher degree in the pastorate
will force you to take stock, make plans, and set priorities in your weekly
schedule. Of course, this is not the only means by which to learn good time
management. Yet meeting the demands of the pastorate as well as deadlines in a
course of study may cause you to realize how much time you can waste with
emails, the internet, and minor tasks that should not distract you from what is
more important. You can fit more into your schedule than you realize. Learning
to co-ordinate tasks for the sake of pursuing further studies will have the
beneficial side-effect of teaching you the life-long skill of efficiency.[10]

You will surprised by what you will learn. Each
day in the Christian life is simultaneously a new discovery of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) and a new discovery of our ignorance.
We must attempt to diminish our ignorance by growing the knowledge of the Lord.
As the church father John Chrysostom wrote, “Ignorance makes the soul timid and
unmanly, just as instruction in heavenly doctrine makes it great and sublime.”[11]
Two examples illustrate how education often reveals our ignorance in unexpected
ways. In my own doctoral studies, John Owen’s work on Communion with God
in depth has given me fresh appreciation for and devotion to the Triune God.
While I have always confessed that the Trinity is an “essential” doctrine, now I
cannot think of any aspect of the Christian gospel, truth, and piety without
thinking about them in terms of communion with all three persons of the Godhead.
The repetition of writing and revising, coupled with secondary reading, has only
reinforced this profound treasury of knowledge, enabling me to incorporate it
into my regular pulpit ministry. The second surprising thing that I have
discovered in my studies is a vast body of Reformed authors that I never knew
existed. Names such as Junius, Musculus, Polanus, Alsted, Hoornbeeck, Piscator,
Hyperius, Voetius and others have been virtually forgotten in the Reformed
world. Yet in these authors, I have discovered some of the best doctrinal and
experimental piety that has ever been written in the history of the church.
Without pursuing higher education in a formal degree program, I likely would
have remained ignorant of this vast wealth of material for the rest of my life,
in spite of diligence in my study. Education may help you to gather materials
that will enrich your ministry and that you never knew to look for.

How Ministers Should
Continue their Education

How to integrate your studies into
your pastoral labors involves the questions of internal motivation and external
implementation. In connection to these two questions is the practical subject of
temptations and pitfalls that result higher education.

Proper Motivation

Two motives subsume all others.
These are the glory of the Triune God and the good of the church. These twin
motives will shape if, why, and how you will pursue education in the ministry,
regardless of what form it takes.

The glory of the Triune God must be the first and primary motive for continuing
education in the ministry. We must do all things in the name of Christ (Col.
3:17) and whether we eat or drink we must do all to the glory of God (1 Cor.
10:31). When we do not seek to glorify the Father, through the Son, by the Holy
Spirit, then everything that we do in the ministry is in vain. The good of the
church must be the second motive in all we do. This motive must flow from the
first. The church must be dear to you because the church is dear to the Father
who gave His Son for her, to the Son who bought her with His blood, and to the
Spirit who unites her to Christ and who makes His home with her.[12]
Concerning spiritual gifts, the apostle Paul wrote, “let it be for the
edification of the church that you seek to excel” (1 Cor. 14:26 NKJV). Laboring
for the good of the church and laboring for the salvation of lost souls are not
mutually exclusive. Whenever you pray that God’s kingdom would come in the
Lord’s Prayer, you pray that “Satan’s kingdom would be destroyed, and that the
kingdom of grace would be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it and
kept in” (WSC 102). Paul endured all things for the sake of the elect that they
might be saved (2 Tim. 2:10). Your proficiency in the knowledge and piety of the
Scriptures bears direct proportion to your usefulness to the church. The best
ministers in the history of the church have varied in their educational
backgrounds and theological education – but none of them was ignorant. Without
true piety all knowledge would be useless (1 Cor. 13:2). Yet without knowledge
of the truth, true piety lacks the necessary soil in which it thrives and grows
best.

One last point is
worthy of notice with respect to motivation. Far too many seminary students
today desire to teach seminary before they have even completed their Master of
Divinity course. This is a noble goal that potentially provides a necessary
service to the church, but I am alarmed at how many men graduate seminary
desiring to bypass the pastorate in the local church in order to teach at a
“professional” level. This is not what it means to be a pastor-scholar. Carl
Trueman noted that when seminary students inevitably ask him whether or not they
should pursue doctoral studies he tells them, “Do not do it if you think you are
going to find a job at the end of it; do it for the sake of doing it. There are
almost no jobs going in academia these days, and humanly speaking, time and
chance are what make the difference between the one who gets the big break and
the one who never even makes a shortlist. For every student who finds an
academic job, there are countless others who do not. I studied with people much
more talented than I am who ended up selling insurance or working in a bank.”[13]
If we begin as ministerial students and then desire higher education instead of
desiring to preach the gospel and to pastor the church, then something perverse
has happened in our hearts during the course of our studies. The purpose of
theological seminaries should not be to produce first rate scholars, but first
rate pastor-scholars. People can serve the Lord through teaching and academia if
that is their calling from the Lord in life. Yet seminaries exist in order to
plant the necessary seeds in men that will enable them to serve the Church.[14]
If the Lord granted the desires of men who do not desire to be shepherds of His
sheep to serve in our seminaries, then the result will be a paradigm shift in
our seminaries themselves. In the old Scottish Second Book of Discipline, the
“doctors” of the church had two primary responsibilities: to provide ministerial
education in the schools and to catechize the church, including the children.[15]
It is a good test of motivation to ask yourself whether you see a great
discrepancy between these tasks. You may or may not teach in a theological
seminary. Most of you will not. The best rule is to pray, “Lord, place me where
I may be most useful to Your church.” We must always make the glory of our God
and the care of His flock our chief concerns.

The Practical Details

It is important to consider briefly
how to implement practically your studies alongside of your regular ministerial
duties. Two points are worthy of special note.

First, pray that every part of your studies would be
useful to your own soul and to the souls of God’s people. In any worthy
endeavor, prayer always comes first. Pray over every book that you open to read,
and over every page that you sit down to write. This will constantly realign
your motives as well. Prayer for fruitfulness in ministry and for personal piety
will never return void. Prayer will yield surprising results, aid your memory,
and teach you to take the Triune God with you in all of your studies. This will
train you to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) in your sermon preparation
as well.

Second, learn to combine your tasks. I can illustrate
this is through personal example. The first way to combine your tasks is in the
choice of your topic. My doctoral studies relate to John Owen’s views on
communion with the all three persons in the Trinity in public worship. This
topic inherently helps me lead the people of God into worship every Lord’s day.
In general, it has led me to teach self-consciously the congregation how to have
communion with all three persons in the Godhead both jointly and distinctly.
People have commented since I began my studies, they now see all three persons
of the Godhead everywhere in the Bible and that they notice how I intentionally
weave all three persons into my sermon application. Another way in which I have
combined my studies with my pulpit labors comes in the form of what I read and
when. For instance, reading Owen’s work on the Holy Spirit has helped me preach
John 14-17 more effectively. In this case, I have combined my PhD reading with
my sermon preparation in a careful and fruitful manner. This allows me to
incorporate other works such as Manton on John 17 into both tasks as well. This
has the added benefit of preventing hundreds of pages of potentially valuable
literature from collecting dust on my bookshelves with the unrealistic intention
to get to it someday. As a byproduct, I have learned to combine tasks elsewhere
as well. When I preached an eight part sermon series on the Glory of Christ, I
drew upon Owen’s Trinitarianism from my PhD work, I turned the series into a
small book, a few articles developed as a byproduct, and I strengthened my
ability to integrate systematic and practical theology into my preaching
permanently.

Pitfalls and Remedies

Having proper motives and an organized approach to your
studies does not mean that all will go well automatically. Our adversary the
devil roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8).
He prepares peculiar snares for ministers who pursue higher education. Let us
not be ignorant of his devices (2 Cor, 2:11). Three educational pitfalls have
stood out in my own experience.

The
first pitfall is pride. Knowledge puffs up but love edifies (1 Cor.
8:1-2). Paul did not encourage naiveté among pastors or lay people. Ignorance is
not bliss. Instead, he knew that perverse human nature tends to increase
learning at the expense of love for God and for His people.[16]
The primary danger is that in your preaching, teaching, and conversation with
others, you begin to trust subtly in your learning rather than in the Holy
Spirit. There are several remedies to this pitfall. If you are astute in your
progress in learning, then you will notice two things immediately: how little
you knew before and how little you actually know now. A wise man observed that
of increase in learning and of many books there is no end (Eccl. 12:12). Have
not your studies given you a new window into how true this is? If you had a
millennium to do nothing but research, then you would gain a glimpse of how
small a portion of the sum of human learning you have obtained, let alone divine
knowledge, to which you cannot attain to (Job 11:7). Does this not make your
pride ironic? Education increases our learning while revealing our ignorance.
Let this humble you as you put on the meekness and gentleness of Christ towards
others (2 Cor. 10:1). In addition, the true remedy to your pride is constant
meditation upon Scripture and fervent prayer.[17]
This will foster your sense of desperation for the operation of the Holy Spirit
in all of your work.

The second pitfall
involves the inherent dangers of academia. Many dangers in this regard
could be mentioned, but one that comes to the forefront is the tendency to
divorce personal piety from academic endeavors. Citing the autobiography of
Bible commentator, F. F. Bruce, John Piper notes that Bruce intentionally said
very little about his religious experiences even in his autobiography. Piper
responded, “My first reaction when I read this was to say, ‘No wonder I have
found his commentaries so dry’ – helpful in significant ways, but personally and
theologically anemic.”[18]
John Owen addressed students at Oxford in the seventeenth century with the
following admonition that we would do well to take to heart:

“What am I the better if I can dispute that Christ is God, but have no sense or
sweetness in my heart from hence that he is a God in covenant with my soul? What
will it avail me to evince . . . that he hath made satisfaction for sin, if,
through my unbelief the wrath of God abideth on me, and I have no experience of
my own being made the righteousness of God in him? . . . Will it be any
advantage to me, in the issue, to profess and dispute that God works the
conversion of a sinner by the irresistible grace of his Spirit, if I was never
acquainted experimentally with the deadness and utter impotency to good, that
opposition to the law of God, that is in my own soul by nature, with the
efficacy of the exceeding greatness of the power of God in quickening,
enlightening, and bringing forth the fruits of obedience in me. . . . Let us,
then, not think that we are any thing the better for our conviction of the
truths of the great doctrines of the gospel, for which we contend with these
men, unless we found the power of the truths abiding in our own hearts, and have
a continual experience of their necessity and excellency in our Standing before
God and our communion with him.”[19]

We must learn from academia, but we
must avoid becoming detached academics instead of warm-hearted pastors.

The third and most dangerous pitfall is to neglect your pastoral
responsibilities for your educational pursuits. The primary remedy is to plan
ahead carefully and to integrate as much of your work as possible. If you find
that you cannot integrate your work very well, then you either need to cut back
and work at a much slower pace, or you need to reconsider the choice of your
subject. One way to integrate your studies into your ministerial work is to give
preference to historical theology. If you do a ThD or a PhD, then I recommend
that you consider giving preference to seventeenth and early eighteenth century
Reformed orthodoxy.[20]
This field will prove to be formative for all that you do, teach, and say. As
Richard Muller has observed, this time period is the necessary starting point
even for discussions of contemporary Reformed theology and practice.[21]
This recommendation is a concrete example of what is in view rather than an
invariable rule for all.

How and Why Congregations
Should Support Ministerial Education

Due largely to the perverse
mentality that churches and students have developed with respect to ministerial
education, congregations tend to become suspicious of ministers who pursue an
advanced degree. Particularly in small congregations, when a pastor pursues
doctoral work, people begin to make comments such as, “You won’t stay here for
long.” Others may think that the minister wants a salary increase. This problem
is not limited to men who pursue formal education. If many ministers do not see
the need to be diligent in their studies, then those who have not trained for
the ministry and who have little knowledge of the day to day work of the
ministry will likely see even less need. Yet as we have seen, a learned and
pious ministry is precisely what a congregation needs. For these reasons, this
section addresses elders and congregations.

An elder in a local church once told me that I already had all of the education
that was necessary in order to qualify me to be a pastor. This reflects a faulty
view of theological education. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones contended that the purpose
of theological education was not to learn everything necessary to know in order
to minister in the church, but to lay a foundation for a lifetime of study.[22]
The reason why my denomination (The Presbyterian Church in America) recommends
seminary education for candidates for the gospel ministry is not so that every
minister has the proper suffixes after his name, but so that he gains a
competent level of knowledge to fulfill his office. He must possess much more
than knowledge and some aspects of the ministry can only be learned by
experience. Moreover, without personal holiness and sufficient gifts that are
attested to by the church, even the most learned men are disqualified from the
office. However, the PCA recognizes that there are extraordinary cases in which
men may be ready for the ministry even without seminary training. However, they
must pass all of the same tests for ordination as educated men.[23]
Being a pastor does not negate the need for further education any more than
being educated provides the qualifications for being a pastor.

A faulty attitude towards ministerial education on the part of
churches will be devastating to the quality of our ministry. If the Lord raises
up men for the ministry out of the membership of His church, then it is
imperative that our churches have proper views of preparation for the ministry.
Ordinarily, defective views of ministerial education reflect defective views of
the ministry itself. When men go into the ministry with such views, they stop
pushing themselves to make progress in their work. Following English Bible
knowledge exams on the floor of Presbytery, it has become common for fellow
ministers to note that they used to know their English Bibles as well as the new
candidates, but that after ten or twenty years in the ministry they probably
could not pass this exam any longer. Every year subsequent to their ordination,
ministers should increasingly surpass the knowledge of those men who are fresh
out of seminary. Many have implicitly accepted the idea that men should study
diligently in the seminary in order to get their degree. Then they study even
more intensely to pass their ordination exams. Yet once these tasks are over,
men act as though all of their studies are irrelevant for the pastorate. If this
is your attitude to theological education, then neither your ministers nor your
congregations shall make much progress in holiness and in the knowledge of
Christ. If men truly have no use for the knowledge that they gain in seminary
once they enter the pastorate, then there are two possibilities: either their
ministerial education was severely deficient, or they have adopted an improper
view of the calling that their office entails.

Let these examples challenge
congregations. Churches that do not expect a learned ministry will not likely
obtain either learned or pious ministers. Allowing your minister to pursue
higher education is not an automatic cure for laziness in the pastorate. Rejoice
if your minister desires to make progress. Do not assume that he wants another
degree in order to move on to “better things.” I have several close friends in
the ministry who obtained their PhD’s prior to entering the pastorate and whose
desire is to serve the local church their entire lives. Ask your pastor why he
wants to further his education, listen to what he tells you, and lay aside your
preconceived notions of higher education. Pray alongside your minister that he
would be able to rightly divide the word of truth, that he would be diligent in
serving the Lord, and that he would be a worker that does not need to be
ashamed. A special bond of trust is created between a pastor and a congregation
when they elect him to his office. He has vowed before God and to you that he
would make as much progress as possible in his personal holiness and knowledge
of the truth so that he can preach what he learns, from his heart to yours. Pray
that the Holy Spirit would enable Him to do so, and praise the Triune God if He
has given to you a learned and learning pastor.

One last point of advice to
congregations is, do not allow your minister to go into debt while pursuing
higher education. A minister should pursue a program that he can afford or that
his congregation or Presbytery is willing to help him get through. This is a
worthy endeavor that is well worth the prayers and money of the church. Make
sure as well that your church leadership is willing to support him in his work
and remember that it is for the edification of the church that he seeks to excel
(1 Cor. 14:12, 26).

Conclusion

In seventeenth century England, ministers were subjected to rigorous education.
Anywhere from age thirteen to sixteen,[24]
Oxford and Cambridge students began a four year B.A., which shifted into an M.A.
Those who pursued ministry next began a seven-year course in divinity for a BDiv.
In addition, students were forbidden from speaking any language on campus other
than Latin or Greek. Because John Owen cut his divinity studies short after two
years, he viewed himself as inadequately prepared to teach at Oxford in the
1650’s.[25]
I have currently completed a B.A., MDiv, and ThM. That being said, I often tell
people – only half joking – that once I finish my PhD I will have obtained the
educational equivalent of the average Puritan minister. We cannot press our
modern world into any particular historical mold, but the need for an educated
ministry continues today. Let us labor diligently in the ministry, but let us
take the time to sharpen the tools that are necessary for our work as well.

__________________

NOTE: This article was first published in the January 2012 issue of the Puritan Reformed Journal. The author further notes that his friends, Pastors Bill Schweitzer and
Ryan Speck, deserve thanks for their useful feedback on this article.

[1] For
instance, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and Thomas Boston, among
others, produced most of their works in the context of the pastorate.

[4] For
instance, see the brief treatment in my article, “A Pastor’s Analysis of
Emphases in Preaching: Two False Dichotomies and Three Conclusions,” in
Puritan Reformed Journal, 2:1,
Jan. 2010, 275-276.

[5] See my
articles, “On Theological Writing,” and, “William Plumer on Pastoral
Writing,” both in Puritan Reformed
Journal, 2:2, Jul. 2010, 303-315 and 316-320, respectively. This
current article is partly an outworking of my earlier article on
preaching mentioned above and the two articles on pastoral writing
mentioned here.

[6] The best
illustration that I have found of this is J. Gresham Machen,
Christianity and Liberalism
(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1946).
Ironically, if you fall into the rut of treading water in order to
prepare your weekly sermons, then you will never find time to read a
valuable book like this one.

[9] John Owen
noted that this was precisely what characterized the life of our Lord
Jesus Christ. See Owen,
Pneumatologia, in, The Works
of John Owen, ed. William Goold (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers,
1851), III, 170.

[10] For more
on guarding our time in the ministry, see William S. Plumer,
Hints and Helps in Pastoral
Theology (Harrisburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2002), 69-79 under
the heading, “A Minister’s Studies.”

[15]Second Book of Discipline,
cited in Stuart Robinson, The
Church of God as an Essential Element of the Gospel, and the Idea,
Structure, and Functions Thereof: A Discourse in Four Parts
(Philadelphia: Joseph M. Wilson, 1858), Appendix, xxviii, cxxxi. Note
that the page numbers in the appendix begin with roman numerals. In
2010, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church prepared a new edition of this
work with an introduction by Craig Troxell as well as a biographical
sketch by Thomas Peck.

[16] See
above.

[17] See John
Owen, Vinidiciae Evangelicae,
in Works, XII, 51. I have
written more about the connection between meditation on Scripture and
prayer in, “Retaining Scripture in our Minds and Hearts,” in
Puritan Reformed Journal, 3:2, Jul. 2011, 351-360.

[18] John
Piper and D. A. Carson, The Pastor
as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry
(Wheaton, Il: Crossway, 2011), 22.

[19]Vindiciae Evangelicae,
Works, XII, 52.

[20] If you
are interested in looking into this field, then the best place to start
is Willem J. van Asselt,
Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism (Grand Rapids: Reformation
Heritage Books, 2011).